


5+1 Adds to Six (and that's how many vignettes there are)

by BuzzCat



Series: (Belated) Cablanca Week 2020 [5]
Category: Knives Out (2019)
Genre: F/M, Headcanon, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25191391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuzzCat/pseuds/BuzzCat
Summary: Six mini-vignettes about Marta and Benoit's life together. Call them vignettes if we're feeling fancy, 'glorified headcanons' if we're being real.
Relationships: Benoit Blanc/Marta Cabrera
Series: (Belated) Cablanca Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819165
Comments: 2
Kudos: 58





	5+1 Adds to Six (and that's how many vignettes there are)

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5 - Established Relationship
> 
> (I know this isn't a proper fic, but I stared at this prompt for hours before I finally threw my hands up in surrender, so enjoy six headcanons)

## 1.

Benoit is a night owl, though not by choice. Years of working at the crack of dawn make him an early riser by force of habit, and insomnia has plagued him more and more as he’s gotten older. There are a lot of night where he sneaks out of bed to go sit in the library (the redone library, no trace of the knife sculpture there) and read with a single lamp.

Marta has never had a sleep schedule in her life. So much of her life as a nurse would change around when clients needed her, if there were morning or afternoon obligations. As such, she’ll be awake until all hours and wake up at all hours. The only thing consistent is that she sleeps like the dead. When she and Benoit both can’t sleep, they’ll play Go in the library until the sun comes up. They talk while they play. Earlier in the relationship, when Benoit had first moved into the house and things were still new and skittish between them, they talked about deep personal truths, about horrors that haunted sleep, about Big Things. But as time has gone on, it isn’t that they have less to talk about, but that they’ve talked about it before. So, sometimes the Go games are quiet. It’s one of the few activities where they don’t discuss any of Benoit’s cases; he’s trying to take a mental break to come back fresh.

## 2.

Marta makes the coffee, Benoit makes breakfast. This isn’t for any particular reason aside from Benoit makes terrible coffee and Marta always burns breakfast. It’s a tradition that came up early in the process of living together, and it stays a tradition through the rest of the relationship. Marta takes her coffee black, nothing in it. Benoit throws in sugar until the spoon stands up straight, but he doesn’t want anyone to know it. He has spent a lot of time carefully creating and measuring how much people underestimate him, and somehow sugared coffee is the thing that tips the scales too far. When Benoit is out of town or Marta has to travel for a charity thing, Benoit drinks tea and Marta eats whatever the hotel is serving for breakfast.

## 3.

They both have nightmares. Benoit has nightmares that Ransom grabbed a real knife, that Marta died in front of him and he did nothing. He doesn’t have the nightmare often, but it’s the kind of thing that pops up just when he thinks it’s over. He has other nightmares, as time goes on. One time a suspect got way ahead of the game, heard he was working the case, found out where he lived, and made it to the house to hold Marta hostage. Marta was out of town that week, so the suspect got nothing, but Benoit has nightmares that Marta was home, that he had to negotiate for his wife’s life with a murderer.

Marta has nightmares about Harlan. Harlan yelling at her that she should have done better, that if she hadn’t suggested doing drugs, she wouldn’t have realized the drugs were wrong, and they would never have known what Ransom tried to do. Every once in a blue moon, she has a nightmare that Ransom killed her, but those never stick around as hard as the Harlan nightmares.

## 4.

Marta is the one who originally asked out Benoit. He couldn’t get past the age difference, was worried about her reaction if he asked. Marta asked him out because she needed a date for a fundraiser and everyone else was unavailable. They ended up having great conversations with Benoit as her plus one to various events, until Marta asked him out for ice cream, and they were dating from there. Marta is also the one who proposed marriage, but only because Benoit was waiting for the perfect moment, and Marta just blurted it out one evening while they were reading. When Marta asked, he agreed, but only on the condition that she allow him to propose properly, ring and everything, when he had it. Marta agreed to his terms.

## 5.

They never have kids. Benoit has friends with children, so he has long accepted his place as the fun uncle. Marta never really wanted kids, and once her sister has a couple, Marta is overjoyed to be an aunt but doesn’t want more than that. Benoit might have wanted kids a long time ago, when he was younger and still entertaining ideas about a big family. But as he got older, it became less of a priority and less of something he wanted at all. Marta never wanted kids of her own, in the sense that she wouldn’t have minded some if the situation came up, but it never became a real driving need for her. They have a pregnancy scare or two over the years, none of which result in anything aside from stress on everyone’s part, but that’s the closest they get. They check in with each other about kids every few years in the beginning of the relationship, after that they pretty much leave it alone. Neither of them ever regrets it.

## 6.

They don’t say ‘I love you’ very often. They have, of course (Benoit said it first). But they show their love much more through actions. Marta knows exactly how much sugar Benoit takes in his coffee (a lot) and she’ll fix it for him if she’s up first. Benoit knows that Marta hates the red Starbursts, so he’ll eat them instead (pink is his favorite, but once Benoit is good enough at Go for it to be a competition, they have to set the rules that the winner gets pink Starbursts). They really only say ‘I love you’ if Benoit is leaving for a case and Marta can’t come with for one reason or another (typically, she’ll fly out with him). Neither of them really realizes how little they say it until people start asking if they’re married at all, at which time they start holding hands in public to send the message. For all that Benoit will grandstand with the best of them, he uses words as a tool at work, not as a default in his personal life. Marta prefers actions to words, says they speak louder anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Check back tomorrow for another installment in the series!


End file.
